Cooking in a small kitchen

Menu

Tag Archives: Veggies

I grew up eating stuffed peppers filled with ground beef and cheese. They are a serious comfort food for me. Though they absolutely delicious and over-filling, I wanted a healthier alternative that also tasted great. Introducing my favorite new grain – quinoa! It soaks up the taste of everything around it and is super healthy for you. Packed full of all sorts of veggies, these are great for a complete meal.

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Sautee onion in a pan until translucent. Add corn to pan and heat for about 5 minutes.

3. In a saucepan, add the quinoa, tomatoes, and italian seasoning. Bring to a boil, cover, and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, allowing the quinoa to cook through. You will know when the quinoa is cooked, as the little kernels will pop and become larger.

4. While the onion and corn cooks, add the black beans and cook for about 5 minutes until warmed through.

5. Once the quinoa is ready, add it to the onion mixture in the pan. Mix all together and then set aside.

6. Cut your peppers in half and clean out the seeds from the inside. Lay the halves down on a covered cookie sheet, inside up.

7. Scoop heaping spoonfuls of the quinoa mixture onto the peppers. It will feel like you have too much – that’s ok. Keep scooping.

8. Bake for about 25 minutes until the pepper is soft.

9. Enjoy!

Results:

Yum! They’re super filling, so you’ll have plenty for leftovers. I was surprised we each had one whole pepper.

This recipe is one of my favorites when I don’t know what else to make. There are a bunch of ingredients, but a little goes a long way, so even though you’re buying a lot of new things up front, they will last you a long while.

This one is a quick meal, but also super customizable. In the recipe below, I used red and green peppers, but you can really throw in any fresh vegetables you have laying around (I sometimes use a cucumber or some green onions, but anything with a crunch will succeed here). The original recipe is for shrimp, but I opt for some precooked chicken strips. You could also forgo the meat all together and make this a vegetarian option. Totally up to you!

Preparation:

1. Boil a pot of water and add noodles. Boil until noodles are ready, about 10 minutes. Drain noodles.

2. To prepare sauce, combine the first 5 ingredients; stir until smooth (There will be chunks due to the peanuts, but the rest of the mix should be combined well)

2. To prepare the chicken, sauté in nonstick skillet coat ed with cooking spray over medium-high heat for 3 minutes on each side or until crispy on the edges.

3. Slice peppers into strips. Set aside.

4. Combine chicken, noodles, and peppers in pasta pot. Stir together.

5. Add peanut sauce and stir.

6. Serve and enjoy!

Results:

The sauce is sweet and yummy and this one throws together in about 10-15 minutes. It’s great when you don’t know what to prepare or you need to whip a lot of food up quickly. This one is consistently in my meal rotation, especially on busy weeks.

Another one of my favorite take-out go-to’s is Chinese food. As we’ve discussed, it can be a pain on both the wallet and the waistline to order in take-out all the time. I enjoy finding alternatives to favorite meals that are usually healthier and often more delicious.

4. Once steak is cooked through but not too ‘well done’, pour in the sauce and the snap peas into the pan and mix together.

5. Serve over rice and enjoy!

Results:

This is definitely a lighter, healthier version than you’d find at the Chinese take-out place. The sauce is SUPER delish, too. Add a little extra hoisin for sweetness and adjust the red pepper for your preferred level of spicy.

The best steak to use is flank steak. It is often the most expensive in the meat counter and, depending on your grocery store, they may not even carry it. Alternatives are skirt steak or “London Broil”. You can really use any cut of steak you’d like, but make sure it’s not too too fatty, or else you’ll get a lot of grease in the pan and it’ll affect the flavor. Just make sure it’s a thin cut of meat.

I love using the snap peas as the vegetable in this one. They add a nice crunch to each bite.

One of my favorite things to do is order take out. Really, restaurants are so much fun and it is so easy to call up delivery after a long day of working. What’s not so fun is the costs can add up from ordering out every night. Also, it’s not the healthiest and goodness knows we’re not living on college metabolisms anymore. Is there a way to find that same deliciousness while also being easy to prepare? You bet there is!

Thai food is one of my favorites to order. In DC, there’s not a lot of Chinese take out that isn’t greasy, so Thai food is the next best bet. Last night, I whipped together a Thai ‘fake-out’ dish that was equally (if not better) than my usual order at the place around the corner.

5. In a small bowl, mix soy sauce and honey. Pour into skillet, coating chicken and vegetables.

6. Serve over rice.

Result:

I was surprised at how much I liked the cornstarch-coated chicken. It absorbed the honey/soy mix really well and left a really sweet taste. I always like a lot of veggies in my meals so I went a little overboard on this one. Feel free to use as many or as little fit your needs. The edamame, red pepper, and mushroom are a must, though.

I used an Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice for this recipe to cut down on time, but you could use whatever rice you want. This time, I used brown rice, but I bet long grain would also be a good choice.

Also, for those of you who doubt the ‘cozy’ factor of this kitchen, I present the following evidence:

Halfway through preparation, and you’ll notice that most of the ingredients are resting on the stove top (turned off – of course!). You make it work with what you got!